Slow fire

The combined political Opposition parties appear to be executing a carefully orchestrated plan to create political, social, and economic instability in the country, with the aim of giving more steam to the No-Confidence Motion which will be tabled in Parliament this October.

These parties have realised that in order to muster up more electoral support and get ahead of the PPP/C before the impending parliamentary debate, they must create an environment where there is distrust for the government, widespread uncertainty, fear and a general feeling of hopelessness among the citizenry.

As of recent, the plan to remove the PPP/C from office has taken on new parliamentary and extra-parliamentary fronts. The government is been blamed for everything under the sun and for everything that is wrong in every part of Guyana.

So it does not come as a surprise, that the Opposition has begun mobilising political support in the form of protests and staged public consultations in the name of “local democracy’ and “holding government accountable”.

On one hand, the APNU has hauled Finance Minister, Dr Ashni Singh before the Privileges Committee for allegedly spending monies that were legally not approved by the Parliament. This also follows a myriad of other campaigns aimed at discrediting sitting Government Ministers and calling for their resignations.

On the other hand, both the AFC and APNU have failed to commit towards working with the government through Parliament to iron out concerns they have about several large scale developmental projects, including the Amalia Falls Hydro Power Project, the Cheddi Jagan Expansion Project, and the Marriott Hotel Project.

The Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Amendment Bill remains in limbo with the Opposition stymieing its passage and blocking any attempts by the government to achieve international compliance in order to avoid blacklisting.

Interestingly, all of this is being done while the US government is implementing critical components of its IRI-led and USAID-funded ‘Leadership and Democracy Project’ which aims to “strengthen local democracy”.

It is also interesting to note that the GPSU, which has always aligned itself with the Opposition interests, has awoken from a long slumber and is now claiming that the government is not honouring its responsibility to public servants. The Union then threatened strike action and other forms of industrial action if the government does not act in their favour.

In a twist of events, the AFC has accused that the PPP/C was offering some Gy$30 million to three Opposition Members of Parliament with the aim of buying their vote in the No-Confidence Motion debate. No doubt, the aim was to sling mud against the party, but the AFC ended up drawing blood from the APNU and is now between a rock and hard place.

The PPP/C is now being blamed again for the personal conundrum that one of its Executive Members have found himself in.

All of these developments do not augur well for Guyana’s future development, even though they pose the strongest challenge to the country’s democratic resolve.

It would appear that the Opposition political parties are rushing for Executive Power and will do all that they can to make the government unpopular, even if it means jeopardising the peace and tranquility enjoyed by ordinary citizens.

There appears to be no serious thought being given to frank and open discussions with the State and government void of politics in the interest of putting Guyana and its people first.

There is no interest of taking arguments and discussions past politics with the aim of focusing on fast tracking socio-economic development.

The slow fire has just begun, and the Opposition parties will no doubt increase it as the time for the No-Confidence Motion nears, but those right-thinking Guyanese may give another surprise mandate to the politicians after they exercise their democratic rights at the poll.

Much of what happens over the next few weeks will determine how shocking that mandate will be.